System and method for defining a sales promotion

ABSTRACT

A method of defining a sales promotion for a plurality of products includes determining a group of sales promotion sites to be included in the sales promotion from a plurality of sites using a computerized system, wherein the plurality of sites have been previously organized according to a predetermined grouping structure, and wherein the group of sales promotion sites is independent of the predetermined grouping structure. The method also includes determining a list of products associated with the group of sales promotion sites, and determining the products to be included in the sales promotion from the list of products associated with the group of sales promotion sites.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/551,221, filed Mar. 8, 2004 and entitled “Inventory Management,” andU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/563,284, filed Apr. 16, 2004 andentitled “Inventory Management,” both of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present description relates generally to the field of systems forand methods of pricing retail products and services. More specifically,the present description relates to systems for and methods of definingsales promotions for retail products and services.

Effective pricing of retail products and services is often a complicatedtask. In order to maximize profits, not only must revenue be optimized,but also the costs of inventory must be taken into account. One strategyused is to periodically reduce the price of the retail products orservices in order to encourage sales of the retail products or services.The amount of the reduction is often set by a sales agent who has hadexperience in the market for the retail products and services and can,using his or her experience and intuition determine the timing andamount of markdowns.

In particular, the sale of seasonal retail products or services poses ahigh financial risk for merchants or service providers. This risk iseven more acute in the retail business. Each seasonal item can beassigned a specific sales period. When high-fashion and fashion itemsare involved, the merchant wants to have as little remaining stock aspossible at the end of the sales period, as it will be difficult to sellthis merchandise even with markdowns. In this case, larger remainingstocks translate to higher losses. In addition to fashion items, such aspink raincoats, this also applies to other products, such as computerhardware.

For less “fashionable” products, the risk is lower because merchants canstore any remaining stock and then try to sell it at the normal priceagain in the same season of the next year. Because storing inventoriesis expensive, however, merchants will generally prefer to sell theirmerchandise by the end of the regular sales period.

Merchants often use markdowns to ensure that the merchandise is sold outas completely as possible by the end of a season. Markdowns are pricereductions or buyer's incentives aimed at promoting the sale of certainarticles. Of course, markdowns reduce the gross margin, which means therevenue merchants earn for selling the merchandise is less thanoriginally planned. Merchants usually plan a certain budget formarkdowns that must not be exceeded. Accordingly, markdowns are appliedrestrictively in retail, which once again increases the risk ofremaining stocks at the end of the season.

As discussed above, effective pricing of products is a complicated taskwhich is often performed manually. For example, price adjustments inplanning decisions may be used using manual selection systems. Further,a sales promotion may also be implemented in a manual or automatedprocess. A promotion refers to a special event, retail sale, or otheractivity designed to reduce inventory. For example, spring sales events,two-for-one promotions, end-of-season sales, clearance sales, etc. areexamples of sales promotions which may be used to reduce inventory.Sales promotions are different than a markdown controlling process whichis not necessarily tied to an event or special circumstance.

An important objective in the pricing of products is to limit retailsales promotions to a minimum and apply them to the right products atthe best suitable times and places and with maximum flexibility whileensuring that nearly all the merchandise is sold by the end of theseason. To this end, merchants need to flexibly and efficientlyimplement and manage sales promotions at varying levels of detail. Thus,there is need for a system for and method of defining a sales promotionthat provides for defining the sales promotion based on a grouping ofsites, such as geographic locations of stores or distribution systems,wherein the grouping is either independent of or not limited to aparticular predefined grouping structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to an exemplary embodiment, a method of defining a salespromotion for a plurality of products includes determining a group ofsales promotion sites to be included in the sales promotion from aplurality of sites using a computerized system, wherein the plurality ofsites have been previously organized according to a predeterminedgrouping structure, and wherein the group of sales promotion sites isindependent of the predetermined grouping structure. The method alsoincludes determining a list of products associated with the group ofsales promotion sites, and determining the products to be included inthe sales promotion from the list of products associated with the groupof sales promotion sites.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a program product fordefining a sales promotion for a plurality of products includesmachine-readable program code for causing, when executed, one or moremachines to perform the following method steps: determining a group ofsales promotion sites to be included in the sales promotion from aplurality of sites, wherein the plurality of sites have been previouslyorganized according to a predetermined grouping structure, and whereinthe group of sales promotion sites is independent of the predeterminedgrouping structure, determining a list of products associated with thegroup of sales promotion sites, and determining the products to beincluded in the sales promotion from the list of products associatedwith the group of sales promotion sites.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a system for defining a salespromotion for a plurality of products includes means for determining agroup of sales promotion sites to be included in the sales promotionfrom a plurality of sites, wherein the plurality of sites have beenpreviously organized according to a predetermined grouping structure,and wherein the group of sales promotion sites is independent of thepredetermined grouping structure. The system also includes means fordetermining a list of products associated with the group of salespromotion sites, and means for determining the products to be includedin the sales promotion from the list of products or services associatedwith the group of sales promotion sites.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription and accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however,that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicatingpreferred embodiments of the present invention, are given by way ofillustration and not limitation. Many modifications and changes withinthe scope of the present invention may be made without departing fromthe spirit thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The exemplary embodiments will hereafter be described with reference tothe accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals depict like elements,and:

FIG. 1 is a general block diagram illustrating a system for processingdata related to a sales promotion according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram which illustrates two particularmethods for defining a sales promotion according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram which illustrates in greater detail aprocess 300 of defining a sales promotion according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 4 is a general block diagram illustrating an article hierarchy towhich a price level group may be assigned according to according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the article hierarchy of FIG. 4in greater detail according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a merchandise hierarchy accordingto an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates a hierarchical product list based on a producthierarchy structure according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a diagram which illustrates a global assortment that linkstogether a plurality of stores and a plurality of products at specifictimes according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 9 is a data flow diagram illustrating storage of sales promotiondata in a data warehouse for reporting purposes according to anexemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe present invention. It will be evident to one skilled in the art,however, that the exemplary embodiments may be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, structures and device are shown indiagram form in order to facilitate description of the exemplaryembodiments.

According to various exemplary embodiments, a method and system fordefining a sales promotion are provided that facilitate consolidatingpromotion data for a plurality of sales promotions into a singlepromotion for, for example, data reporting purposes. In this way, thesystem provides for efficient sales promotion definition and managementsuch that sales promotions may be kept to a minimum and applied to theright products at the best suitable times and places and with maximumflexibility while ensuring that nearly all the merchandise is sold bythe end of the season.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for processing data related to retailoperations and planning. The data can be related products or servicesthat are being or planned to be sold. According to an exemplaryembodiment, system 100 is configured for defining a sales promotion.System 100 may be a closed loop system and includes a data warehouse 120and a price planning system 130.

According to an exemplary embodiment, system 100 may include additionalcomponents configured to manage and implement price planning for retailstore operation. For example, system 100 may further include additionalcomponents such as a procurement engine, a supply engine, a merchandisecontrolling engine, a valuation engine, etc. The components of system100 may further be interconnected such that information may be freelyexchanged between the components of system 100. According to oneembodiment, data is exchanged through data warehouse 120.

System 100 may be further associated with one or more additionalexternal components such as a plurality of cash register systemsassociated with retail store locations. The cash register systems may beconfigured to perform a number of functions associated with retail storeoperation such as pricing implementation, inventory control, datamanagement, etc.

System 100 may be implemented as a single system, a distributed system,or any combination thereof. System 100 may be implemented using a singlecomputing system, a plurality of computing systems, software, hardware,or any other system or combination of systems to perform the functionsdescribed herein. Further, the components associated with system 100 mayalso be implemented using single or multiple systems.

Data warehouse 120 is a data repository configured to receive, sort,process, and store information related to retail operations andplanning. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, data warehouse 120is configured to receive, sort, process, and store hierarchical productlists 122 and sales promotion data 124. Data warehouse 120 may also beimplemented using single or multiple systems. Data warehouse 120 mayfurther include one or more functions to permit a user to efficientlyorganize and retrieve stored data.

Price planning system 130 is preferably a data processing system orsoftware configured to allow one or more users to perform one or morefunctions, such as retail price planning functions, associated withsystem 100. Price planning system 130 may be any system configured tofacilitate price planning for one or more products within a retailoperation. According to an exemplary embodiment, price planning system130 includes a slow seller management engine 132, a manual pricingengine 134, and a promotion management engine 136, as well as a userinterface 138 and pricing engine 140. According to alternativeembodiments, price planning system 130 may further include additional,fewer, or different systems to facilitate retail price planning.Communication with data warehouse 120 allows system 130 to obtaininventory data, budget data, and product lists, which may be used byslow seller management engine 132, manual pricing engine 134, andpromotion management engine 136 for providing price planninginformation.

Generally, slow seller management engine 132, manual pricing engine 134,and promotion management engine 136 communicate with price planningsystem 130 either directly or as downstream processes. System 130 isconfigured to interface with each engine using custom information forthat engine. According to an alternative embodiment, slow sellermanagement engine 132, manual pricing engine 134, and promotionmanagement engine 136 may be implemented as components within priceplanning system 130.

Slow seller management engine 132 may be any system or method configuredto communicate with one or more of a budgeting system, a planningsystem, an inventory system, and/or any other systems within or incommunication with system 100. According to an exemplary embodiment,slow seller management engine 132 is configured to identify andrecommend pricing or other strategies for products or inventory that isselling at a slower rate than forecast. Pricing strategies may includerecommended markdowns to increase sales and reduce inventory.

Manual pricing engine 134 may be any system or method for generatingprice planning input based on manual input received from a user.According to an exemplary embodiment a user may utilize a user interfaceassociated with manual pricing engine 134 or user interface 138 to enterone or more price changes such as a new sales price, a percentage changebased on the original or current sales price, or an absolute pricechange by specifying a difference from the original or current salesprice. The user may further enter any associated information such astiming information, quantity information, store location information,etc. For example, a manager of a particular retail store may haveknowledge of a local fashion trend, indicating that following anautomated retail pricing procedure would be detrimental to the retailoperation. Manual pricing engine 134 would allow the manager to overridethe automated pricing procedure by, for example, determining analternative price for articles or merchandise related to the trendduring a particular time period at that particular store.

Promotion management engine 136 may be any system or method forgenerating price planning information or input in order to define asales promotion for one or more products. A sales promotion may be apromotion associated with a particular store or grouping of stores, aparticular article or grouping of articles, a geographic region, etc. Apromotion may include a price change, timing information, articleinformation, store location, or any other information related to thepromotion to be implemented.

User interface 138 may be any type of interface configured to allow auser to interact with price planning system 130 and/or any associatedcomponents such as slow seller management engine 132, manual pricingengine 134, and promotion management engine 136. User interface 138 maybe configured such that each user is assigned to one or more specificbudgets, which in turn are assigned to specific articles. The userassignments may be used to define the set of articles that a user isauthorized to process. User interface 138 may also be configured todisplay data such as a hierarchical product list to a user in order tofacilitate the defining of a sales promotion.

Pricing engine 140 may be any type of system or method configured toreceive a price planning schedule and communicate with one or morecomponents associated with system 100 to implement price changes definedin the price planning schedule. Pricing engine 140 may be furtherconfigured to implement functions associated with the price changes suchas budget updates, inventory tracking, etc.

FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram which illustrates two particularmethods for defining a sales promotion within price planning system 130according to an exemplary embodiment. In order to achieve a high degreeof integration between price planning system 130 and promotionmanagement engine 136, promotion management engine 136 may be configuredto be actuated from user interface 138 of price planning system 130. Forexample, user interface 138 may include a “create promotion” button oricon to allow a user to create a promotion. According to one of themethods, a user utilizes user interface 138 to indicate that a manualprice change selection will be used to create a promotion as indicatedby step 205. According to the other method, the user indicates that apromotion will be entered directly as indicated by step 208.

Where a manual input selection is made in step 205, product data may beloaded into an edit area of user interface 138 to enable a user tomanually edit pricing and/or product data in a step 210. The productdata may be in the form of a hierarchical product list structuredaccording to a predetermined product hierarchy structure, as will bedescribed below with regard to FIGS. 4-8. Manually editing pricingand/or product data may include manually entering price changes, timinginformation, product selections, etc.

Following manual editing in step 210, a user may utilize user interface138 to create a promotion based upon the manually edited data in aconversion step 215. Upon creation of the promotion, the user mayutilize user interface 138 to modify information related to thepromotion to be created in a step 220. Modifying information related topromotion may include changing one or more products included in thepromotion, timing information, sources included in the promotion, etc.

Where a selection is made to directly enter a promotion in step 208, apromotion may be created in a step 225. Creation of the promotion instep 225 may include loading of product and/or promotion data to theedit area of user interface 138 for manipulation by the user. Forexample, the user may use the edit area to make changes related to theproducts and/or changes related to data for the promotion. As with usinga manual price change selection to define the promotion, the productdata may be in the form of a hierarchical product list structuredaccording to a predetermined product hierarchy structure, as will bedescribed below with regard to FIGS. 4-7.

Following creation of a promotion and related product data in steps 220or 225, price planning system 130 may be configured to create a priceplanning document (PPD) and a promotion in a step 230. The priceplanning document may be distributed and maintained in a step 235.

FIG. 3 is a data flow diagram which illustrates in greater detail aprocess 300 of defining a sales promotion according to an exemplaryembodiment. In the illustrated embodiment, a user may utilize userinterface 138 to select a general grouping 305 of retail products orservices. Products or services may be selected, for example, by definingspecific attributes of desired items (e.g., types, descriptions, etc.),or by selecting a predetermined list of items (e.g., from lists of itemsstored in data warehouse 120 shown in FIG. 1). As will be describedbelow with regard to FIGS. 4-8, user interface 138 may be utilized toselect a hierarchical product list structured according to apredetermined product hierarchy structure (e.g., hierarchical productlists 122 read or written from data warehouse 120 as shown in FIG. 1).The user may navigate through the hierarchical product list to select aparticular product or group of products for which price changes are tobe implemented. Selected products are initially displayed hierarchicallyin a rough worklist 310 in user interface 138.

Following selection of the products in step 305 and creation of roughworklist 310, the products in rough worklist 310 may be selectivelytransferred to an editing area 315 within user interface 138. Whenproducts are transferred from rough worklist 310 to editing area 315,the corresponding data from data warehouse 120 is read again and theproduct is removed from rough worklist 310. Further, the transferreddata may be supplemented with additional data from data warehouse 120 ordata available through price planning system 130.

Editing area 315 may be utilized to make changes to prices and otherattributes of the selected items. As mentioned above, price changes mayinclude a new specific price, a percentage markdown from an existingprice, a reduction by a specific amount, etc. Further, price changes mayinclude effective dates or other timing information. For example, aprice change may include a series of price changes wherein each pricechange is set to occur on a specific date. Alternatively, a price changemay include more specific information, such as setting a percentagechange based on the quantity of a product still in stock at a particulardate. User interface 138 may further be utilized to enter additionalpromotion-relevant data, such as a temporal validity period defining thestart and end dates for the promotion, limits on quantities for theselected items, etc., before the data for the items in editing area 315is approved and stored.

After the data in editing area 315 is approved, it may be saved as aprice planning schedule within a price planning document (PPD) 320.Price planning document 320 may be any type of document that includes aprice planning schedule and/or other information needed to implement theprice changes suggested in the price planning engine worklist. Exemplaryinformation may include article data, stock quantities, associated pricemarkdowns, price activation levels, budget data, etc.

FIG. 4 illustrates a product hierarchy structure in the form of anarticle hierarchy 400 to which a price level group may be assignedaccording to according to an exemplary embodiment. A product hierarchystructure is a data structure comprising multiple levels of abstractionwhich may be used to group an aggregation of retail products or serviceshierarchically in a sales oriented structure. Product hierarchystructures are typically determined as part of a general process ofassortment planning, which generally involves creating associationsbetween retail products or services and stores based on numerouscriteria.

In FIG. 4, article hierarchy 400 is illustrated with a hierarchy IDlevel (e.g., a number) 402, a division level 404, a category level 406,a subcategory level 408, and a segment level 410. Article hierarchy 400may be customized by a user to include additional levels (e.g., asubsegment level below segment level 410) or fewer levels, as well asdifferent names, to better represent the merchandise (e.g., products orarticles) layout associated with a particular enterprise. According toan exemplary embodiment, article hierarchies may be defined with up to10 levels.

Although the names and number of levels in article hierarchy 400 can becustomized, one level in article hierarchy 400 must be defined as the“category” level. The category level may be selected to represent theindependent presentation spaces in a store that are devoted tomerchandise categories presented to consumers in a unified manner. Inthe department store context, for example, the category level in articlehierarchy 400 may be selected to represent differentiated groupings ofshops in the department stores such as confectionaries, mensweardepartments, and ladies wear departments. Alternatively, a lower levelin article hierarchy 400 may be selected to represent the differentindependent presentation spaces for subgroups of merchandise (e.g.,long-arm blouses, short-arm blouses, trousers) within each shop in adepartment store. Other criteria for selecting the category level mayalso be used.

In an exemplary embodiment, the level in article hierarchy 400 selectedto be the category level has several additional properties that areunique to that level. One unique property of the category level is thatstores can be assigned only to that level. These assignments make senseprimarily in the context of department stores, wherein the stores thatare assigned to a category are the shops in different department storeswhich (primarily) present goods from this category. For example, in mostdepartment stores there is a section for “men's fashion.” Hence, acategory may be defined in the system for “men's fashion,” and thissection in the department store may be treated as a shop in the system.

Another unique property of the category level in article hierarchy 400is that the assignment of articles (as described in detail below) toarticle hierarchy 400 must be unique below the category level. That is,each article can be assigned only once to a node at or below aparticular category node. By contrast, the same article can be assignedagain to a different node at or above the category level (e.g., thedivision level).

To further illustrate, FIG. 5 illustrates an article hierarchy 500,which shows in greater detail an exemplary embodiment of the articlehierarchy of FIG. 4. In the illustrated embodiment, article hierarchy500 has been defined to include seven distinct levels, comprising: anenterprise level 502, a consumer field (CF) level 504, a division level506, a consumer theme (CT) level 508, a theme module (TM) level 510, anassortment module (AM) level 512, and an article level 514. CF level 504maybe selected to represent different high level groupings of retailproducts or services (e.g., fashion, sport). CT level 508 may beselected to represent retail product or service categories presented toconsumers in a unified manner, such as the individual shops in adepartment store. TM level 510 may be selected to represent thedifferent independent presentation spaces for subgroups of merchandise(e.g., long-arm blouses, short-arm blouses, trousers) within each shopin a department store. AM level 512 may be selected to group articlesaccording to various criteria such as the time periods during which sucharticles will be displayed, the stores to which they will be assigned,etc.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the relationships between thevarious nodes in article hierarchy 500 may be as follows. Therelationship between the nodes of each level above AM level 512 and thenode(s) in the next lower level is 1:n. For example, each node in TMlevel 510 may be assigned or linked to one or more child nodes in AMlevel 512, while each node in AM level 512 is linked to exactly oneparent node in TM level 510. In contrast to the nodes above AM level512, the relationships between the nodes in AM level 512 and the nodesin Article level 514 may be n:m. That is, a single node in AM level 512may be linked to one or more child nodes in article level 514, whileeach node in article level 514 may be linked to one or more parent nodesin AM level 512 so long as each parent node in AM level 512 is in adifferent category. Thus, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5,article node 520 may be linked to both AM node 522 and AM node 524 in AMlevel 512 because nodes 522 and 524 are assigned to differentcategories. In particular, AM node 522 is assigned to the categoryrepresented by CT node 528 and AM node 524 is assigned to the categoryrepresented by CT node 530. In some embodiments, individual articles inarticle level 514 may be assigned directly to nodes above AM level 512.For example, article node 520 may be linked directly to TM node 526.This assignment is permissible because TM node 526 is assigned isassigned to a different category than either CT node 528 or 530. In anexemplary embodiment, the user can set a flag to indicate whether theassignment of individual article nodes to more than one parent node inAM level 512 and/or to other higher level nodes is allowable orprohibited.

Article hierarchies, such as article hierarchy 500 represent only one ofmay possible ways to hierarchically organize and view retail productsand services. For example, FIG. 6 illustrates a merchandise hierarchy600 according to an exemplary embodiment. Merchandise hierarchy 600represents a long-term retail product or service grouping in aclassification structure that is independent of a store structure orlayout. Instead, retail products or services are grouped in merchandisehierarchy 600 based on common inherent characteristics (e.g., allbeverages may be grouped together regardless of their type and how orwhere they are displayed in the stores).

In the illustrated embodiment, a merchandise (MC) level 608 representsthe lowest level in merchandise hierarchy 600. This means that differentarticles that are assigned to the same MC node usually have at least thesame characteristic(s) represented by the MC node. For example, articles614, 616 and 618 (comprising three blazers having different styles,sizes and/or colors) in an article level 610 are assigned to a single MCnode 612 and thus have at least the same characteristic(s) (e.g., theyare all blazers) represented by MC node 612. According to an exemplaryembodiment, each article is assigned to exactly one MC node inmerchandise hierarchy 600, and multiple MC nodes can be grouped togetherto form merchandise hierarchy (MCH) levels. For example, merchandisehierarchy 600 is illustrated with a MCH level 606 (comprising a“jackets” category) immediately above MC level 608, and a higher MCHlevel 604 (comprising a “jackets/coats” category) above MCH level 606.Similar to article hierarchy 400 (shown in FIG. 4), the topmost layer inmerchandise hierarchy 600 is an enterprise level 602. The nodes in thelowermost level in merchandise hierarchy 600 and in similar merchandisehierarchies may be referred to as merchandise categories. Thus,categories may represent differentiated, independently controllablegroups of retail products and/or services that consumers recognize asdifferent and/or exchangeable to satisfy a need.

A merchandise hierarchy may be formed for various reasons. For example,it may be formed to: (i) plan an assortment (as described in detailbelow), (ii) enable structured analyses in the information system andthe planning of target and actual values at the MC level, and (iii) savecommon data (such as conditions) at superior levels to reduce storagespace. According to an exemplary embodiment, the following informationmay be defined for each MC node: price, color, and size groups; validityperiods; n characteristics, and status values. In this embodiment,colors may be saved hierarchically as main colors or single colors. Themain colors can have various characteristic values, which represent thesingle colors. In this case, the single colors are variant-creatingcharacteristics. Accordingly, a merchandise hierarchy having thisstructure would allow for analysis of main colors, single colors, andattribute values.

The characteristics of articles in a merchandise hierarchy may be usedfor classification. Characteristics represent defined properties of anobject, such as the color of a blouse. Characteristics help todifferentiate objects from one another and find specific articles in theinformation system (e.g., list all articles with characteristic value“Red” of the “Color” characteristic). Characteristics can be eithervariant-creating (i.e., used in the definitions of the article variants)or purely informative. According to an exemplary embodiment, two orthree-dimensional variant-creating characteristics can be defined foreach MC node.

According to another embodiment, below the MC level, and thus below theentire merchandise hierarchy, characteristic profiles may be defined tosegment or specialize the merchandise hierarchy. This may be done tosimplify the creation of new generic articles, variants, and singlearticles.

In this embodiment, a characteristic profile may be used to define theset of values for a characteristic that are permitted in that particularprofile. For example, a characteristic profile called “Ladies' sizes,Germany” could define the sizes 34 to 48. Multiple characteristicprofiles can be created for multiple nodes in merchandise hierarchy 600.A characteristic profile can be assigned several times within themerchandise hierarchy. Thus, every article that is assigned to a node inmerchandise hierarchy 600 can optionally be assigned to a characteristicprofile. According to an exemplary embodiment, the relationship betweencharacteristic profiles and nodes in merchandise hierarchy 600 is n:m.That is, a single characteristic profile can be linked to multiple nodesin merchandise hierarchy 600, and vice versa.

As persons skilled in the art will appreciate, the use of characteristicprofiles provides several advantages. For example, characteristicprofiles can be used to (i) group sets of colors and sizes, (ii) assignthem to the relevant nodes in merchandise hierarchy 600, and (iii)select the suitable profile when creating articles.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary hierarchical product list 700 which maybe based on, for example, article hierarchy 500 (shown in FIG. 5) oranother product hierarchy structure such as merchandise hierarchy 600(shown in FIG. 6), and which may be used to determine products to beincluded in a sales promotion. For example, in the illustratedembodiment, hierarchical product list 700 is based on article hierarchy500 (shown in FIG. 5) and is received by price planning system 130 fromdata warehouse 120 and displayed to a user via user interface 138 (shownin FIG. 1). Product hierarchy list 700 includes a correspondinghierarchical list entry for each of the nodes and articles included inarticle hierarchy 500.

In an exemplary embodiment, a sales promotion may be defined usinghierarchical product list 700 by selecting any hierarchical productlevel or node therein and, for each node selected, products or articlesassociated with the selected node are included in the sales promotion.That is, for each node selected, products or articles associated witheach child node representing the lowest level or end node below theselected node will be included in the sales promotion. For example, ifthe node “Assortment Module 2” is selected, the resulting salespromotion will be defined to include “Article 1” and “Article 2.”

According to another exemplary embodiment, hierarchical product list 700may be used to define two or more sales promotions having varying levelsor degrees of specificity. In this embodiment, a general sales promotionmay be defined by selecting a node in one level of hierarchical productlist 700, and then one or more child nodes in one or more levels belowthe general sales promotion may be selected to define a more specificsales promotion or group of sales promotions within the general salespromotion. For example, in one embodiment, a general sales promotion maybe defined by selecting the node “Theme Module 1” from hierarchicalproduct list 700, and then a more specific sales promotion may bedefined within the general sales promotion to include only “Article 1”and “Article 2” by selecting the these nodes from hierarchical productlist 700.

According to an exemplary embodiment, each of the more specific salespromotions within a general sales promotion may include differing valuesfor one or more parameters associated with the general sales promotion.Such parameters may include, for example, sales prices (i.e., markdowns)or validity periods for the sales promotion. For example, in oneembodiment, a general sales promotion may be defined by selecting thenode “Theme Module 1” from hierarchical product list 700, where “ThemeModule 1” includes long-arm blouses. A more specific sales promotion maybe then be defined by selecting the node “Assortment Module 1,” where“Assortment Module 1” includes red long-arm blouses. The more specificsales promotion may then be defined to include a sales price or markdownfor red long-arm blouses which is different from the sales price ormarkdown for the general sales promotion on long-arm blouses. In anotherembodiment, a general sales promotion may be defined by selecting thenode “Theme Module 1” from hierarchical product list 700, where “ThemeModule 1” includes long-arm blouses, and wherein the general salespromotion is defined with a validity period of August 1-14. Morespecific sales promotions may then be defined by selecting nodes“Assortment Module 1” and “Assortment Module 2.” The more specific salespromotion for node “Assortment Module 1” may be defined with a validityperiod from, for example, August 1-7, and the more specific salespromotion for “Assortment Module 2” may be defined with a validityperiod of, for example, August 7-14.

As noted above, product hierarchy structures are typically determined aspart of a general process of assortment planning, which generallyinvolves creating associations between retail products or services andstores based on numerous criteria. FIG. 8 diagrammatically illustratesan exemplary global assortment 818 that links together a plurality ofstores 820, 822, 824, 826, 828, and 830 and a plurality of retailproducts or services 832, 834, 836, and 838. According to an exemplaryembodiment, retail products and services are always linked to anassortment (either global or local) rather than directly to a particularstore.

Retail products or services 832-838 are linked to assortment 818 byassortment versions 844 and 846. According to an exemplary embodiment,assortment versions 844 and 846 may include retail products or servicesthat are hierarchically grouped according to a product hierarchystructure. In the illustrated embodiment, each of assortment versions844 and 846 is active or valid for specified period of time (e.g.,valid-from/valid-to dates). For example, retail products or services832, 834 and 836 are linked to assortment 818 by assortment version 844,which is active between dates/times T1 and T3. Similarly, retailproducts or services 832, 834 and 838 are linked to assortment 818 byassortment version 846, which is active between dates/times T3 and T4.As persons skilled in the art will recognize, the foregoing timedependencies of the assignments of retail products or services 832-838to assortment 818 provides for automatic regular (e.g., every month orsix weeks) releases of merchandise in the stores to maintain assortmentfreshness.

According to an exemplary embodiment, assortment versions 844 and 846may include differing groups of retail products or services that arehierarchically grouped according to a hierarchical product structure,such as article hierarchy 500 (shown in FIG. 5) based on “seasonal”attributes of the various products. A “season” refers to a specific timeperiod with specific assortment characteristics. Each season, in turn,may be characterized by a season category and a season year. Forexample, a season may be characterized according to a calendar (e.g.,fall/winter 2003 and spring/summer 2004) or based on a special event(e.g., Christmas 2004). Thus, in one embodiment, assortment version 844may contain a hierarchical grouping of products associated with“fall/winter 2003” and assortment version 846 may contain anotherhierarchical grouping of products associated with “spring/summer 2004.”

In one exemplary embodiment, a sales promotion may be defined based onthe seasonal characterization of a particular hierarchical grouping ofproducts. For example, a user may “select spring/summer 2004” (e.g., viauser interface 138 shown in FIG. 3), which may correspond to assortmentversion 846. The hierarchical list of products associated withassortment version 846 may then be displayed to the user, who may thendefine the sales promotion from the hierarchical product list.

In this way, a sales promotion may be flexibly defined to match aparticular grouping of stores and retail products or services at anydesired level in the product hierarchy structure during a desired periodof time. Thus, the number of sales promotions, as well as the scope ofeach promotion may be minimized and/or selectively defined according tosales performance of different products at a number of different levelswithin a sales organization, and within a number of specific retailproduct or service groupings. Accordingly, revenue reductions due tosales promotions are minimized and inventory reduction is improved.

While promotions may be defined according to theme hierarchy structuresand merchandise group hierarchy structures, other sales-orientedstructures may further be used to define a sales promotion. For example,in one embodiment, a sales promotion may be defined according to a “sitegroup.” A “site” generally refers to an organizational unit whereproduct movement takes place, such as a distribution center or store, ora geographic location such as a city, state, region, country, etc.According to an exemplary embodiment, a user may select a predefinedgrouping of sites (i.e., a “site group”) created according to apredetermined classification system that is independent of, for example,price planning system 130. The classification system is used, forexample, to define groupings of retail sites that may generally be usedfor sales-oriented processes not limited to sales promotions. Sitegroups originally created according to such a classification system arereferred to herein as “class-system” site groups. Once the particularsite group has been identified by a user, a hierarchical list ofproducts associated with that site group may be used to define the salespromotion. If changes are made to a class system site group, thesechanges will be reflected in all promotions based in the class systemsite group.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a user may create apromotion-specific site group as part of the sales promotion definitionprocess. In this embodiment, the promotion-specific site group iscreated according to one or more user-selected criteria, such as ageographic site location or region, and is independent of anypredetermined class system or any other site group created according tothe class system. For example, in one embodiment, a class system sitegroup may be used as a template for a promotion-specific site group. Inthis embodiment, the user may select a particular predefined classsystem site group to use as a “template”, and then modify a copy of thepredefined site group according to a user-selected criterion or otheruser preference to create a promotion-specific site group that isindependent of the class system site group. In another embodiment, thepromotion-specific site group may be created according to auser-selected criterion or other preference without reference to apredefined class system site group. In either embodiment, thepromotion-specific site group is independent of any predetermined classsystem or any other site group created according to the class system,e.g., the promotion-specific site group may be created or changed withinthe promotion definition process without affecting any other site group,and changes to any other site group will not affect thepromotion-specific site group.

In this way, a sales promotion may be flexibly designed according to anydesired grouping of sites, and the promotion will be independent of anypredefined grouping of sites such that changes to the predefined groupof stores will not affect the promotion, and vice versa. Thus, thenumber of sales promotions, as well as the scope of each promotion maybe minimized and/or selectively defined without interfering with othersales promotions.

FIG. 9 illustrates storage of sales promotion data in data warehouse 120for reporting purposes according to an exemplary embodiment. Salespromotion data may be written to data warehouse 920 as a singlepromotion. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, data warehouse120 includes sales promotion data 925 for sales promotion A. Salespromotion data 925 for sales promotion A includes data for only onesales promotion, i.e., sales promotion A, which has been written to datawarehouse 120 for reporting purposes. Alternatively, sales promotiondata for groups of related sales promotions may be grouped as ahigher-level promotion and stored in data warehouse 120 for reportingpurposes. For example, a sales organization may choose to grouppromotion data from a specific Spring promotion for retail products orservices in a particular region with promotion data from specific Springpromotions for retail products or services in other regions as a higherlevel “Spring” promotion to view overall profits from all of thesepromotions. Any number of related sales promotions may be groupedtogether in a higher-level promotion for reporting purposes. Forexample, in the illustrated embodiment, sales promotion data 926 forsales promotion B includes sales promotion data for related salespromotions B₁ and B_(N). In this way, sales promotions may beindividually tracked and reported, or may be grouped together forcentralized reporting, which may provide for more efficient salespromotion management.

Embodiments within the scope of the present description include programproducts comprising computer-readable media for carrying or havingcomputer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Suchcomputer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessedby a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example,such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carryor store desired program code in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to acomputer, the computer properly views the connection as acomputer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed acomputer-readable medium. Combinations of the above are also to beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions.

The invention is described in the general context of method steps, whichmay be implemented in one embodiment by a program product includingcomputer-executable instructions, such as program code, executed bycomputers in networked environments. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, andprogram modules represent examples of program code for executing stepsof the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of suchexecutable instructions or associated data structures representsexamples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions describedin such steps.

The present invention in some embodiments, may be operated in anetworked environment using logical connections to one or more remotecomputers having processors. Logical connections may include a localarea network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) that are presented hereby way of example and not limitation. Such networking environments arecommonplace in office-wide or enterprise-wide computer networks,intranets and the Internet. Those skilled in the art will appreciatethat such network computing environments will typically encompass manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination of hardwired or wirelesslinks) through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

An exemplary system for implementing the overall system or portions ofthe invention might include a general purpose computing device in theform of a conventional computer, including a processing unit, a systemmemory, and a system bus that couples various system componentsincluding the system memory to the processing unit. The system memorymay include read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). Thecomputer may also include a magnetic hard disk drive for reading fromand writing to a magnetic hard disk, a magnetic disk drive for readingfrom or writing to a removable magnetic disk, and an optical disk drivefor reading from or writing to removable optical disk such as a CD-ROMor other optical media. The drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer-executable instructions, data structures, program modules andother data for the computer.

Software and web implementations of the present invention could beaccomplished with standard programming techniques with rule based logicand other logic to accomplish the various database searching steps,correlation steps, comparison steps and decision steps. It should alsobe noted that the word “component” as used herein and in the claims isintended to encompass implementations using one or more lines ofsoftware code, and/or hardware implementations, and/or equipment forreceiving manual inputs.

The foregoing description of embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for purposes of illustration and description. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed, and modifications and variations are possible in light of theabove teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principalsof the invention and its practical application to enable one skilled inthe art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

1. A method of defining a sales promotion for a plurality of items, themethod comprising determining a group of sales promotion sites to beincluded in the sales promotion from a plurality of sites using acomputerized system, wherein the plurality of sites have been previouslyorganized according to a predetermined site grouping structure, andwherein the group of sales promotion sites is independent of thepredetermined site grouping structure; determining a list of itemsassociated with the group of sales promotion sites; and determining theitems to be included in the sales promotion from the list of itemsassociated with the group of sales promotion sites.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the group of sales promotion sites is determinablebased on a geographic location of each site.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the group of sales promotion sites is determinable in responseto user input.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the group of salespromotion sites is determinable in response to user input received froma graphical user interface.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the listof items associated with the group of sales promotion sites is ahierarchical list of items, and wherein the hierarchical list isstructured according to a hierarchical structure which includes aplurality of levels.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the items to beincluded in the sales promotion are determinable from the hierarchicallist of items associated with the group of sales promotion sites byselecting at least one level from the hierarchical list.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the group of sales promotion sites is determinablebased on the predetermined site grouping structure.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the list of items includes at least one of a serviceand a retail product.
 9. A program product for defining a salespromotion for a plurality of items, said program product comprisingmachine-readable program code for causing, when executed, one or moremachines to perform the following method steps: determining a group ofsales promotion sites to be included in the sales promotion from aplurality of sites, wherein the plurality of sites have been previouslyorganized according to a predetermined site grouping structure, andwherein the group of sales promotion sites is independent of thepredetermined site grouping structure; determining a list of itemsassociated with the group of sales promotion sites; and determining theitems to be included in the sales promotion from the list of itemsassociated with the group of sales promotion sites.
 10. The programproduct of claim 9, wherein the group of sales promotion sites isdeterminable based on the geographic location of each site.
 11. Theprogram product of claim 9, wherein the group of sales promotion sitesis determinable in response to user input.
 12. The program product ofclaim 11, wherein the group of sales promotion sites is determinable inresponse to user input received from a graphical user interface.
 13. Theprogram product of claim 9, wherein the list of items or associated withthe group of sales promotion sites is a hierarchical list of items, andwherein the hierarchical list is structured according to a hierarchicalstructure which includes a plurality of levels.
 14. The program productof claim 13, wherein the items to be included in the sales promotion aredeterminable from the hierarchical list of items associated with thegroup of sales promotion sites by selecting at least one level from thehierarchical list.
 15. The program product of claim 9, wherein the groupof sales promotion sites is determinable based on the predetermined sitegrouping structure.
 16. The program product of claim 9, wherein the listof items includes at least one of a service and a retail product.
 17. Asystem for defining a sales promotion for a plurality of items, thesystem comprising: means for determining a group of sales promotionsites to be included in the sales promotion from a plurality of sites,wherein the plurality of sites have been previously organized accordingto a predetermined site grouping structure, and wherein the group ofsales promotion sites is independent of the predetermined site groupingstructure; means for determining a list of items associated with thegroup of sales promotion sites; and means for determining the items tobe included in the sales promotion from the list of items associatedwith the group of sales promotion sites.
 18. The system of claim 17,wherein the group of sales promotion sites is determined based on thegeographic location of each site.
 19. The system of claim 17, whereinthe group of sales promotion sites is determined in response to userinput.
 20. The system of claim 19 wherein the group of sales promotionsites is determinable in response to user input received from agraphical user interface.
 21. The system of claim 17, wherein the listof items associated with the group of sales promotion sites is ahierarchical list of items, and wherein the hierarchical list isstructured according to a hierarchical structure which includes aplurality of levels.
 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the items to beincluded in the sales promotion are determinable from the hierarchicallist of items associated with the group of sales promotion sites byselecting at least one level from the hierarchical list.
 23. The systemof claim 17, wherein group of sales promotion sites is determinablebased on the predetermined site grouping structure.
 24. The system ofclaim 17, wherein the list of items includes at least one of a serviceand a retail product.